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Latin America, the new narcotics network

2024-01-06 10:33:47Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Latin America, the new narcotics network

Gang violence is spreading throughout Latin America. Formerly safe countries like Ecuador are now gripped by crime, writes The Economist

On October 27, 90 policemen, 22 vehicles and a truck stood on alert in a field on the outskirts of Santiago, the capital of Chile.

They weren't there to quell any noisy protest, but to observe a narcofuneral: the burial of a young woman suspected of having ties to drug traffickers.

Such an event, during which mourners often fire bullets into the air, would previously have been completely unimaginable in Chile, which has long been considered one of the safest countries in Latin America.

But between May 2019 and September 2023, gangs held nearly 2,000 such funerals, according to president Gabriel Boric. In September, Mr. Boric introduced a bill in Congress aimed at limiting them.

The map of homicides in Latin America is changing. The region's homicide rate has fallen since 2017, although countries such as Mexico and Brazil still have some of the highest homicide rates in the world.

But in previously safe states, homicide rates are reaching record levels, including Ecuador, Costa Rica and Chile. We can summarize this phenomenon as the "new narcotics network", where the combination of drugs, weapons and immigration is fueling gang violence throughout the region.

Let's take Ecuador first. His descent into chaos has been swift. In 2018, the country was a sleepy area of ​​the Andes, with a population of 17 million.

It mainly exported oil and fish. It had the fourth lowest homicide rate in Latin America, at 5.8 per 100,000 people. This year, that rate is expected to reach 35 per 100,000 people.

It is already higher than that of Mexico and Brazil (see chart). Criminal gangs kill with impunity, planting bombs and hanging dead bodies from bridges.

In August, a presidential candidate who promised to fight corruption was killed. The six accused Colombian killers were found hanged in their prison cells in October.

Cocaine is the main cause of Ecuador's problems. For decades, the country has been ignored by international drug traffickers. That changed in the late 2000s, when gangs realized they could make even bigger profits by penetrating further afield, into Europe and Australia.

Consequently, the gangs then changed their methods of transportation: instead of packing the cocaine on planes or boats to the United States, they put it inside container ships, hiding it among various goods.

As Colombian ports tightened security, criminals sought alternative transport routes. Laxly supervised Ecuadorian ports became even more attractive after 2009, when leftist President Rafael Correa undermined the country's defenses, closing a US naval base and ending cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Ecuadorian gangs, such as Los Choneros, registered as transporters, transporting cocaine for Mexican gangs and the Albanian mafia. By 2019, Ecuador had turned into a known drug transit point.

Imprisoning gangsters simply helped strengthen criminal networks. The Los Choneros gang thrived in the overcrowded prisons, recruiting more and launching attacks on enemies. The killings escalated into massacres, with dozens of prisoners being dismembered and burned.

In 2021, about 330 prisoners were killed in Ecuador, the highest number in the world. That same year, cocaine ranked as Ecuador's sixth-largest export, worth nearly $1 billion, or 0.9% of GDP, according to investigative newspaper InSight Crime.

Similarly, this year, in Costa Rica, homicides are projected to reach a record 17 per 100,000 people, compared to 11 per 100,000 people three years ago.

Cocaine is also a big problem in this country. Increased production in Colombia, where record amounts of cocaine leaves have been harvested in recent years, has fueled an increase in drug shipments to Costa Rica, says Álvaro Ramos, former security minister.

However, cocaine is not the only reason for the increase in violence. In recent years, many murders have been committed in connection with the local marijuana market.

Illegal cannabis is big business in Costa Rica: 3% of residents say they use it every month, one of the highest consumption rates in Central America.

Many gangs prefer hashish to cocaine. Transporting cocaine is difficult: it requires connections and corrupt officials (of which there are relatively few in Costa Rica). In contrast, hashish has few barriers to entry and can be sold anywhere.

The state does not possess the proper means to stop the flourishing of these new gangs. Costa Rica abolished the military in 1949.

President Rodrigo Chaves blames past administrations and the judicial system for the situation. He says the country doesn't have enough police, the laws are outdated and the judicial system is too soft on criminals.

The third country in this new narcotics network, Chile, is not a hot spot for murders. Last year, the homicide rate hit a record high of 6.7 per 100,000 people.

That's far less than neighbors and close to the 6.3 rate in the United States. But as the country's narcofunerals prove, crime is getting much worse.

Cocaine and cannabis are showing up at ports more than ever and cannabis seizures have tripled between 2018 and 2021. The country's ports have become targets for criminals. Timber trafficking is also a problem.

The copper industry, which accounts for nearly 11% of the country's GDP, has been hit by armed kidnappings.

Latin America, the new narcotics network

The problem with cocaine

Chile is one of the richest countries in the region. It has also hosted half a million Venezuelan migrants fleeing Nicolás Maduro's regime.

The country has attracted mafia groups such as Tren de Aragua, Venezuela's largest gang. She will control Chile's underworld, building a people-trafficking empire throughout South America.

Gunshots are regularly heard in the port city of Iquique. Tren de Aragua cells run prostitution rings in several cities. About 40 suspected members were jailed in one province last year. Dozens have been arrested during police raids this year.

Consequently, the share of Chileans who say immigration is bad has increased from 31% in December 2018 to 77% in April 2023, according to pollster Cadem.

Another poll found that most blame illegal immigration for the increase in crime. Facing regional elections next year, the government has focused more on security.

After three policemen were killed in March, Mr Boric promised a 40% annual increase in the security budget and enacted tougher penalties for crimes against the police. However, many consider him a politician who is too soft on crime.

What does this new narcotics network mean for the states that once represented Latin America's success stories? Many citizens have shown their anger with immigration. Last year, Ecuadorians were the second largest nationality to cross Panama's Darien Gap border to head north.

Those who stay at home can turn to more extreme solutions. According to the Latinobarómetro regional survey, 48% of Ecuadorian citizens, 31% of Chilean citizens and 22% of Costa Rican citizens rank security as their countries' biggest problem, above the regional average of 13%.

Many Latin Americans admire El Salvador's authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, who over the past year has jailed 1.6% of the population in an all-out effort to crack down on gangs and has an approval rating of 88%, the highest in the region.

Politicians across Latin America are taking note of his behavior. On October 15, Daniel Noboa, a 35-year-old right-winger, won Ecuador's presidential election.

He has promised to follow Mr. Bukele's approach and build floating prisons in the Pacific. Some are skeptical that it will succeed in curbing the gang problem.

But such strange solutions are becoming more and more popular. In the face of increasingly powerful gangs, many Latin Americans are becoming convinced that sacrificing civil rights is a price worth paying for security. Translated by: Lira Muca


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